The ‘systematic effort to manipulate climate change science’

December 11, 2007

The evidence has been overwhelming for quite a while that, when it comes to climate-change science, the Bush administration prefers restrictions to revelations.

Just two months ago, for example, Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was set to testify on the impact of climate change on public health, but the White House intervened, “eviscerated” her testimony, and directed Gerberding to discuss the public-health “benefits” of global warming. It seemed to be part of a trend — the Bush gang has asked an oil lobbyist to re-write government reports on global warming, and muzzled NASA and NOAA officials when their reports were politically inconvenient.

Of course, it looked like part of a trend because it was part of a trend.

For the past 16 months, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been investigating allegations of political interference with government climate change science under the Bush Administration. During the course of this investigation, the Committee obtained over 27,000 pages of documents from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Commerce Department, held two investigative hearings, and deposed or interviewed key officials. Much of the information made available to the Committee has never been publicly disclosed.

This report presents the findings of the Committee’s investigation. The evidence before the Committee leads to one inescapable conclusion: the Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming.

The 37-page report is depressing but illuminating. Bush administration officials have not only stifled dissent, they’ve manipulated scientific reports and censored scientists on a grand scale.

There are so many striking examples, it’s hard to know where to start, but a couple of gems stand out.

This certainly made the White House agenda clear:

Former [White House Council on Environmental Quality] Chief of Staff Philip Cooney told the Committee: “Our communications people would render a view as to whether someone should give an interview or not and who it should be.” According to Kent Laborde, a career public affairs officer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, media requests related to climate change issues were handled differently from other requests because “I would have to route media inquires through CEQ.” This practice was particularly evident after Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Laborde was asked, “Did the White House and the Department of Commerce not want scientists who believed that climate change was increasing hurricane activity talking with the press?” He responded: “There was a consistent approach that might have indicated that.”

This drove the point home nicely as well:

The White House played a major role in crafting the August 2003 EPA legal opinion disavowing authority to regulate greenhouse gases. [Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality] James Connaughton personally edited the draft legal opinion. When an EPA draft quoted the National Academy of Science conclusion that “the changes observed over the last several decades are likely mostly due to human activities,” CEQ objected because “the above quotes are unnecessary and extremely harmful to the legal case being made.” The first line of another internal CEQ document transmitting comments on the draft EPA legal opinion reads: “Vulnerability: science.” The final opinion incorporating the White House edits was rejected by the Supreme Court in April 2007 in Massachusetts v. EPA.

A reporter raised the subject yesterday with White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, who dismissed the report out of hand.

“…I would submit to you, having worked on these issues for a long time, that it’s rehashed rhetoric that has come out of the Democrats beforehand, and we just reject it as being untrue.”

First, the report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is thorough and well-documented. Having Perino “just reject it,” as if the force of her denial is evidence enough, is pretty ridiculous.

Second, does Perino really want to emphasize that she’s “worked on these issues for a long time”? After al, Perino is surprisingly clueless about climate change, and has embarrassed herself on the subject on more than one occasion.

Perino’s nonsense notwithstanding, the committee’s report is an important one. There’s never been a more important time for the public to have complete and accurate information about a pressing environmental catastrophe, and there’s never been a White House this aggressive in waging a war on science.

“Vulnerability: science.”

What a surprise, the most ignorant president ever hires the worst people possible, who see science itself as a threat to their rotten regime. I guess we need a new type of law which makes the obstruction of science a serious offense.

The Republicans are going to pay politically for this, and fairly soon. An overwhelming majority of voters now know that the issue of climate change is serious, and since they care what happens to their kids and their grandkids, there will be a price for these crimes against humanity. BushCo may not believe this yet, but they are literally killing these people’s progeny, killing the chances they have at a better life, and killing millions of people around the world, although these deaths will not occur for years to come.

The Republic of Fear decided a long time ago to be afraid of ghosts and ignore the wolf at the door. Come November, Americans will know that pulling the lever with the red R on it will be helping the party which stands steadfast against the fundamental changes needed to stave off the worst effects of the climate crisis. The D lever is a vote for science, and for their children, whose lives literally depend on good science. Hopefully the Dems will make this issue a big one, because most people would like to see a lot of changes.

  • But she’s an expert on climate change, Steve.

    And we know that must be true because she herself told us so:

    Let me check — in terms of, like, the forensics — that’s one of my areas of — I just don’t have a clue. You can ask me about global warming, I’ll know, but IT forensics is not my strong point. But we’ll work to get back to you.

  • What the hell do I care about the effects of global warming on our posterity if they are complicit Nazi shoppers, Racerx?

    I don’t.

    Our Constitutional Republic is not everything, it’s the only thing.

    See Naomi Wolf’s The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot.

  • Don’t know much about History… (Cuban Missile Crisis)
    Don’t know much Biology.. (Evolution)
    Don’t know much about Science Book (Climate Change)
    Don’t know much about the French she took (French? You kidding? FRANCE Hellooooooo)
    But she do know one and one make two.
    And if she says she loves Dick Cheney too…
    What a press secretary she’d be.

    with apologies to Sam Cooke

  • This rejection of scientific fact is not unique to the Bu$h administration; the bubble is endemic to the entire neoconservative movement, and includes those who try to hide their political genealogy by waving the labels of “Traitor,” or “Liberal,” or even “Imperialist” at anyone who wouldn’t buy into the “Big Lie” foisted upon the People by the political theology of Neoconservativism and the pro-profiteer, no-regulation, Libertarian Fundamentalist regime that spawned it. No matter how much factual evidence is presented, it will not penetrate that bubble.

    The only certified cure; the only valid methodology with which to eradicate the problem is to deny power those who cause global warming through their actions—and likewise, those who seek to smear their way past that truth.

  • Harris Poll last week: 81% of the American people believe climate change is a problem that government must begin to address.

    CBS poll: 68% of Americans want the United States to sign the Kyoto Treaty.

    The Orcs of Mordor, er, I mean the Republicans, continue to have their head up their ass on this issue, but they are rapidly turning themselves into the smallest of minorities as a result.

    We need to make this an issue the way the Australians did when they turned out their morons earlier this month.

    Hopefully the Senate Democrats will not cave in to the idiots on the Energy Bill. Let it sit there for a year, call it up every few months.

    There are now 8 Republican Senators and 18 Republican Representatives who have decided to retire next year. This doesn’t count the ones too stupid (like McConnell) to know they’re an endangered species. We’ll have the majorities we need next year, so don’t give away the store now folks.

  • You can ask me about global warming, I’ll know, but IT forensics is not my strong point.
    Once again I must paraphrase Kill Bill, “Bitch you don’t have a strong point.”

    Good parody, toowearyforoutrage # 4. We may have you and Former Dan have a Battle of the Band Lyrics.

  • Kudos to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for investigating this matter. But until punitive actions are brought to bear on this administration for these illegal and unethical activities, they will continue to engage in them. We don’t just need investigations; we need punishment and justice. For now, this report is another log on the fire that the Bushies are warming themselves by when they really should be tied to a stake at the center of it.

  • Its not a case of having their head’s up their asses , it’s calculated .
    Had enough yet ?

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